US Carrier Group transits Taiwan Strait - Page 2

Ray · 12-22-2007, 00:02 AM

Quote:

China flexes its new muscle

By Willy Lam
Published: December 20, 2007

HONG KONG:

Beijing's decision to cancel a port visit to Hong Kong by the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk last month could go down in diplomatic history as a watershed in China's foreign policy.

The high-decibel "no" to the carrier group - and also to the U.S. frigate Reuben James, which wanted to dock at Hong Kong on New Year's Eve - coincides with a tough stance Beijing has assumed in sovereignty disputes with Vietnam over islets in the South China Sea.

China also has reacted with uncharacteristic vehemence to the hospitality that the United States, Canada and especially Germany have shown the Dalai Lama.

It appears that the Chinese Communist Party leaders have decided to flex their muscles in a way they deem commensurate with China's new-found quasi-superpower status.

The late Deng Xiaoping's 1990s-era axiom for Chinese diplomats - "keep a low profile and never take the lead" - seems passé. The same is true for Deng's dictum on how to handle America: "Work on cooperation and avoid confrontation."

Instead, after decades of teeth-gnashing silence, Beijing is publicly thumbing its nose at what it perceives to be U.S. interference in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.

The Kitty Hawk incident coincided with one of the largest shows of force by the Chinese military this year, a war game over vast swaths of the South and East China Seas. Crack units from four major People's Liberation Army divisions test-fired Russian-procured and indigenously developed hardware, including 022 stealth missiles and Russian-made SS-N-27 "Club" anti-ship cruise missiles.

Apart from simulating a naval blockade of Taiwan, the exercises were meant to warn Washington and Japan against "meddling" in the Taiwan Strait.

It did not appear accidental that the United States, in apparent protest over the Kitty Hawk incident, had the carrier sail through the Strait on the way back to its base in Yokosuka, Japan.

That move prompted Beijing to express "serious concern," implying that foreign vessels wishing to traverse the strait had to seek China's approval, even though the strait has always been regarded as international waters.

The Taiwan-related war games extended well beyond the Taiwan Strait. The PLA conducted exercises near the Paracel Islands, claimed by Vietnam, drawing a protest from Hanoi.

In a related development, thousands of Vietnamese held demonstrations earlier this month outside the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi over Beijing's establishment of the new Sansha municipality in Hainan Province, which will have jurisdiction over three islets Vietnam claims in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.

PLA forces also demolished a few unmanned Indian forward posts near two Indian bunkers in the vicinity of the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet border. The Indian media reported that Beijing told New Delhi that the bunkers violated Chinese territorial integrity.

And China adopted what analysts called an unusually strident stance at the recent annual China-EU summit meeting in Beijing. The deputy prime minister in charge of foreign trade, Wu Yi, heatedly disputed remarks made by the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, on Beijing's supposed failure to stem the export to Europe of "a tidal wave of counterfeit goods."

Moments after Mandelson finished his speech, Wu rushed to his side and issued a verbal protest. "I am extremely dissatisfied"' with Mandelson's speech, she told astounded reporters.

While meeting EU leaders, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao launched a strong attack on Chancellor Angela Merkel for according VIP treatment to the Dalai Lama. He demanded that Berlin "acknowledge and rectify" its mistakes.

Beijing's high-profile quarrels with the United States, Vietnam and Germany have followed a pattern of power projection that began last January when PLA missiles downed an old weather satellite. The feat, widely perceived in the West as the start of the PLA's militarization of space, was followed by the successful launching of the country's first lunar probe.

Moreover, the PLA has departed from its usual protocol of keeping new weapons under wraps. Semi-official military Web sites have recently showcased soon-to-be-deployed hardware ranging from the Jian-12 jet fighter to the Jin-class submarine, which is said to carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

According to Hong Yuan, a military expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the defense concerns of the new leadership and the force projection "have gone way beyond the Taiwan Strait." Hong sees the next five years as "a period of rapid development in areas ranging from the PLA's establishment, institutions and hardware to the extent and means of force projection."

The show of strength also bolsters the leadership at home at a time when old Marxist values are losing their lustre. As Wen said at the ceremony marking China's impending conquest of the moon, the achievement was "a major manifestation of the increase in our comprehensive national strength and the ceaseless enhancement of our innovative ability."

Beijing is undoubtedly aware that such assertiveness could feed fears abroad of a "China threat." But both the Communist Party and the Army leaders seem convinced that this is the price the reinvigorated dragon has to pay to keep its place in the sun.

Willy Lam is an adjunct professor of China studies at Akita International University, Japan, and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

China flexes its new muscle - International Herald Tribune

This is a departure from the usual Chinese platform of working, without flamboyance or aggressive proclamation, towards goals that can alarm the world. It is also a departure from the usual Communist double speak that left all wondering the real intent.

It is obvious that China now feels confident of its place in the international comity of nation and is more sure of its new quasi superpower status.

However, it is also surprising that China has adopted this aggressiveness that was absent earlier, and which also achieved Chinese aims without ruffling feathers.

A very uncharacteristic Chinese step!

S65 · 12-23-2007, 02:18 AM

@Bella:
In regards to no Chinese vessel ever visiting US shores, I was lucky enough to get on for a tour of a Type 52 destoyer and a logistics ship when the PLAN visited Naval Station Everett in Washington State.

Haze Gray & Underway Photo Feature: The Chinese Navy visits Everett

wangrui961 · 12-30-2007, 13:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zinja

Oh dear, someone has been nuked!!!!

i once was nuked here, just a discussion,i don't care.
why should china nukes u.s , personaly i love u.s very much except when its' soldiers come to east asia and threat china.
a canadian believed bejing and shanghai can't compare to tepei , he persisted that he had been to china......
i am still fine ,i will buy my car and live a very happy life.
if someday i am really nuked, i once be haaaaaaappy at least.
we are all ants,not the prisdents,earth will still rotation without us.care more about your family and friends,try to get more money and enjoy your life,but not nuke any others.
you nuke china , a big mushroom cloud,what can you get? a mushroom cloud too.
i really don't like war ,especially war with usa. i use dell notebook,mircosoft windows vista ,office,IE,.net....i watch nba,usa big movies,go to youtube and find something interesting,i play american games,i am planning to buy a ford,i also want to take a trip to newyork someday.
usa give me many many dreams,not only culture,science , technology..but also many other things i care .usa is the crystallization of humen cultures,most young guys in china like usa.
but i am a chinese, i would fight and die for my country no matter she is red or in any other colors.i don't like usa navy come to china and show weapons.
if someday we meet in war and try to kill each other,it won't be my wrong.
at last ,happy new year everybody.

S-2 · 12-30-2007, 14:32 PM

"happy new year everybody."

Happy new year to you, Wangrui. Neat comments.

I'm an ant. Once I had a Cantonese girlfriend who carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. I'd advise her that she, too, was an ant.

Now she's gone and I'm here. Sometimes the world intrudes on us ants whether we like it or not. I need the Chinese people otherwise I don't eat nearly so well.

God bless hot & sour soup. Oh, and crab/clams in black bean sauce. Oh, and Tsingtao beer.

wangrui961 · 12-30-2007, 14:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S-2

"happy new year everybody."

Now she's gone and I'm here. Sometimes the world intrudes on us ants whether we like it or not. I need the Chinese people otherwise I don't eat nearly so well.

God bless hot & sour soup. Oh, and crab/clams in black bean sauce. Oh, and Tsingtao beer.

i won't provide sour soup, crab/clams in black bean sauce or qingdao beer to you .
someday when you make love with a girl and use condoms,you may find my signature on it.

(joke)

S-2 · 12-30-2007, 14:55 PM

"...use condoms..."

Won't ever see your signature. I've never used a condom and won't start now.

It would make my ladyfriend, Maude, upset. She wants my baby. Not me, mind you...just the progeny.

Deltacamelately · 12-31-2007, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wangrui961

i won't provide sour soup, crab/clams in black bean sauce or qingdao beer to you .
someday when you make love with a girl and use condoms,you may find my signature on it.

(joke)

Thats the problem...Indian and Chinese are more concerned about their soup n crab...signature is of no use...try using one. We two are crowding the globe.

12-30-2007, 14:32 PM	#19 (permalink)
S-2 *Military Professional* Join Date: 09-11-06 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 2,110 Country:	Wangrui1961 Reply "happy new year everybody." Happy new year to you, Wangrui. Neat comments. I'm an ant. Once I had a Cantonese girlfriend who carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. I'd advise her that she, too, was an ant. Now she's gone and I'm here. Sometimes the world intrudes on us ants whether we like it or not. I need the Chinese people otherwise I don't eat nearly so well. God bless hot & sour soup. Oh, and crab/clams in black bean sauce. Oh, and Tsingtao beer. __________________ "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski

12-30-2007, 14:55 PM	#21 (permalink)
S-2 *Military Professional* Join Date: 09-11-06 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 2,110 Country:	Plastic "...use condoms..." Won't ever see your signature. I've never used a condom and won't start now. It would make my ladyfriend, Maude, upset. She wants my baby. Not me, mind you...just the progeny. Last edited by S-2 : 12-30-2007 at 14:59 PM.

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12-23-2007, 02:18 AM	#17 (permalink)
S65 Regular Join Date: 12-22-07 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 35 Country:	@Bella: In regards to no Chinese vessel ever visiting US shores, I was lucky enough to get on for a tour of a Type 52 destoyer and a logistics ship when the PLAN visited Naval Station Everett in Washington State. Haze Gray & Underway Photo Feature: The Chinese Navy visits Everett

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